From Russia With Love
A faction within the Russian mafia gains control of a nuclear weapon and its arming codes. X-Factor is dispatched to stop the sale of and return the warhead. The codes prove to have been stolen by Jeremy Pratt, who provides the location of the warhead. X-Factor secures the warhead and brings the mafia officials responsible for stealing into custody. Events *X-Factor receives intelligence from the CIA (gleaned from their undercover contact Alexei Meredev) that a section of the Russian mafia working out of St. Petersburg has succeeded in stealing a nuclear warhead from the Russian nuclear arsenal. *Isabel and Illyana arrive in St. Petersburg via Rus Monday evening and meet with their contact, who is revealed to be Dmitri Alexeyev. Isabel streams the meeting live over the communication units to the rest of the team, still in the plan. *As the rest of the team arrives on Tuesday morning, they set up surveillance and tracking on the mafia figures while gathering information. *Tuesday evening, Nick sneaks into Slavin's rooms and plants a bug. Through this bug, X-Factor gains valuable intel. *Late Tuesday evening, Jean-Paul and Nadia search apartment buildings their contact has named as likely holding places for the mutant. They identify a likely apartment get a look inside to confirm that the mutant involved is Jeremy Pratt. On Isabel's instructions, they fake Jeremy's escape from the two guards, who are left dead. *Nadia gets important intelligence from Jeremy - the name on a farm where the Russians stopped after abducting him and of one of the Russians who gave the mafia access to the computer where he downloaded the warhead codes. *Wednesday afternoon, the team receives a communication from Alexei which indicated that Kozlov was on the move to work on the warhead. They track Kozlov to a cabin where they spot Kozlov working on a device, but determine the warhead is likely not present. *Wednesday evening, the team moves to the Rusakov farm. Nadia and Nick determine that there are eight men present and that they are guarding something. The team neutralizes 7 men and kills one. They find the warhead in a storage shed, as well as a metal-mutant named Evgeny Sherbatov, who has melded the warhead into the floor. *The device Kozlov was working on is identified as a remote detonator. Jean-Paul, Illyana, and Silas return to take custody of Kozlov and his companion. *Isabel calls for CIA back-up to secure the farm. When they arrive, the team moves to watch the Smetskey Oren hotel. *Around midnight, Slavin moves from the hotel. The team follows him to a local church where they neutralize Slavin and two men, as well as a local priest. All are delivered to the CIA. *The team leaves for home late afternoon on Thursday, local time and arrives home around midnight local time. Jean-Paul stays behind to hang out. Important Evidence *Alexei Meredev provided a number of important details, including the names of possible locations for the mutant, the identities of potential buyers, and access to Slavin's suite which allowed the team to plant a bug. He proved to be a reliable contact throughout. *Potential buyers include **'Hassan al-Rafik', one of several leaders of a splinter group with ties to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, who wants to free Palestine. The group has been recently galvanized by the actions of the Israeli military and has recently made public statements avowing wiping the Jewish oppressors off the map of the Middle East. **'Juan Garcia Verdugo', principal buyer of the Verdugo organization of cocaine development in Pereira, Colombia. **'Omar Marrero', a member of a group of Puerto Rican separatists. The group has been spurred to a great deal of recent action lately by the changes of the political environment of Puerto Rico and a recent popular vote in Puerto Rico that led them to remain in their current relationship with the U.S **Evidence indicates that Slavin was playing al-Rafik and Marrero off each other and that Verdugo was largely out of the game. **Intelligence on the groups associated with Hassan al-Rafik and Omar Marrero suggest that they are extremely zealous and dangerous in their pursuit of their goals. People Major *Piotr Konstantinovich Kozlov *Aleksandr (Sasha) Mikhailovich Slavin *Jeremy Pratt Minor *Alexei Meredev - CIA Deep Cover contact, aka, Dmitri Sergeyevich Alexeyev Agent Cover Names *Ibis: Agent Greene *Princess: Agent Petrov *Rebound: Agent Jacob Wright *Northstar: Agent Josiah Martin Locations *St. Petersburg, Russia *'Smetsky Oren' :The Smetsky Oren is a large, modern hotel. Twelve floors, lots of glass. It runs in price from medium to pretty expensive. It caters to a lot of foreign travelers as well as to people coming from eastern Russia, provided they can afford. It's across the street from an oval park with a lot of trees and little benches, and next door is a commercial building containing various businesses and a ground floor restaurant tourist-friendly but overpriced Franco-Russian cuisine. A suite on the tenth floor serves as Slavin's base of operations. *'Ermitage' :This is the location of Pratt's safehouse. *'Forest Cabin' :Kozlov visited the cabin, former location of the warhead, and was recovered here. *'Rusakov Pig Farm' :The nuclear warhead was recovered from the farm. *'Safe House' :The three bedroom, fourth floor apartment that they are using as base is a CIA safehouse appropriated for X-Factor use. It is in a secured building in a middling area of town with some additional surveillance on the entry and hallways that routes into the house. There are two beds in each bedroom plus a couch and a loveseat. BUNK UP. There is a convenient fire escape leading onto the roof of the building nearby and a moderate kitchen. Links Category:2010 Missions